U.S. debt ceiling

The Republican establishment is coming around to the view that if you try to govern from one house, you lose. You not only don't get the cuts. You get the blame. And you get opinion polls ranking you below head lice and colonoscopies in popularity.

Yesterday I posted a comment about the respective economic acumen of the Wall Street Journal editorial page vs. Prof. Paul Krugman, under the headline “Were Our Enemies Right?” On that same thesis, my conservative friends argue that the policies of Barack Obama are responsible for the horrifying length and depth of the economic crisis. Question: […]

After all the political bickering over the past few months, a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling was passed into law yesterday. Even though Republicans and Democrats were able to ram the deal through both houses of Congress, condemnation of the agreement was swift and has come from both sides of the isle, which […]

Six years ago, I was shopping a book idea to publishers. The concept was a guide to how the Internet and radio and television gabbers were creating a self-contained parallel universe for American conservatism complete with its own system of economics, a fanciful version of U.S. history and even its own science. That this loopy […]

Normally a deal that reduces debt accumulation without raising taxes, ends weeks of bitter arguing and forestalls a financial calamity, would be considered a victory by any conservative-minded thinker. A column in the Washington Post says the debt deal cobbled together Sunday in Washington is just that: a “huge, unprecedented” victory for the Republican Tea […]

This has been one of those weeks when it has been possible to imagine that the whole world, except for Canada of course, had taken leave of its senses. The dreadful terrorist incident in Norway, land of the fjords, mountain maidens, sing-song voices and the highest per capita standard of living in the world, was […]

By Michael Higgins Forget the debt crisis. By Tuesday it will be solved, over, done with. Last minute compromises will be reached, markets will heave sighs of relief, everyone will be able to cheer that economic Armageddon has been avoided. So what has this ugly, messy display of dysfunctional politics left us with? Losers. And […]

Washington — Americans are in the midst of a great four-year national debate on the size and reach of government, the future of the welfare state, indeed, the nature of the social contract between citizen and state. The distinctive visions of the two parties — social-democratic versus limited-government — have underlain every debate on every […]

As I wrote in a post here on Full Comment Monday, the U.S. debt crisis, while real, is arbitrary and has an artificial source. The Greeks (and Irish, Portuguese, Spanish, Italians and Icelanders) have or will have debt crises based on the fact that banks and other countries’ treasuries are reluctant to buy up their bonds because […]

I know we’re all supposed to pretend to believe that the Boehner plan represents a famous victory for fiscal conservatism. But should the Boehner plan become law, what exactly has this debt ceiling showdown accomplished that could not have been accomplished through the ordinary budget process? I count one thing: the $1-billion cut to discretionary […]